follows out the grand problem of inconsistency which he has set himself. The most tragic element which exists in the world, that irony of events which sets at nought all human purposes, even while it seems to carry out their ends, was never more vividly exemplified than in the catastrophe of this tragedy, How grand are the opening words of this soliloquy! How all occasions do inform against me, The word "all" should be slightly emphasised here. The striking accident of his meeting these forces, and learning the object of their march, makes him exaggerate the universality with which all events seem to teach him the same lesson. Then follows an epigrammatic condemnation of the mere animal life of leading which Hamlet could not justly accuse himself. He puts before himself the two alternatives of "bestial oblivion " on one hand, and on the other— some craven scruple Of thinking too precisely on the event, A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom from which he may choose the cause of his inaction. There is a wonderful force in these lines I do not know Why yet I live to say 'this thing's to do,' Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means, To do't. There is a relentless insisture in his enumeration of all the requisites and advantages, all the motives and the materials, which he possessed for carrying out the vengeance enjoined him. Note the contrast in these lines Witness this army, of such mass and charge, Hamlet pictures Fortinbras as no hardy and brawny warrior, rude of speech and vigorous of frame, but as "a delicate and tender prince," no more richly gifted with the physical qualities which generally distinguish bold and active men than himself. So far as their forms, their nature, their education, are concerned, they are alike; but in their deeds how unlike! Hamlet with every motive that can urge him to swift and forcible action, his father murdered, his mother dishonoured, with the sad reproachful face of that father's F spirit still stamped upon his mind, with the solemn reproaches of that supernatural visitation still sounding in his ears, stands weighing with scrupulous exactness every possible consequence of that which is to be done at once and yet remains undone; while Fortinbras, his spirit with divine ambition puff'd, Makes mouths at the invisible event, mockingly defies the future; exposing life, wealth, honour, everything that when exposed to danger is most perishable, to the powers of chance and death, to the countless perils of war; and for what? Even for an egg-shell. Here is the same thought as in that other great soliloquy : It was, as I have said, only a simulated emotion which raised that bitter reflection; now it is real, positive, action. The beautiful lines which follow are well known; they ought to be written on every man's heart, for they are the perfect epitome of a noble nature: Rightly to be great Is not to stir without great argument, What follows has already entered into the paraphrase which I have rashly attempted-for volumes of words could not express more clearly or more forcibly the working of a man's mind than these-but it is worth one's while to observe the intensity of these lines: while to my shame I see The imminent death of twenty thousand men, Go to their graves like beds. This last expression is beyond all praise; and the amplification of what the Captain had told him is almost equally fine : which is not tomb enough and continent To hide the slain? There is in this speech, as it were, a whirlwind of intellectual action which sweeps one along with it-intellectual action I have said, for what is the resolution with which Hamlet concludes ? O, from this time forth, My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth! Not "My deeds be bloody," as we should have expected; just as before, in the soliloquy already quoted, we had "About my brain!" instead of " About, my hands" or "arm!"* In fact Hamlet is so completely a man of mind, that he acts only with his mind, confusing the source of action with the means of executing it. The first "bloody thought" which he carries out is the putting to death of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and this he procures to be done rather than does. We might have expected that, on discovering the nature of the royal commission of which they were the bearers, he would have denounced their treachery before the crew of the ship, and have killed them himself; but this was far too simple a course for Hamlet to pursue. He might have, not without reason, dreaded the interference of the officers and men on board the ship, who would be more likely to side with Claudius than with Hamlet; but such a direct plan of action probably never even occurred to him, for he was fascinated by the ingenuity, and intellectual vindictiveness, of the device which he adopted. But upon this subject I have already remarked at considerable length. I have only reverted to it here, in order to show how the aversion of Hamlet's nature to direct and plain action is admirably maintained by Shakespeare, even when he seems to have begun to act and ceased to reflect. For a time we leave Hamlet, embarked on a dangerous journey, surrounded by treachery, from which chance, more than any effort of his own, delivers him, and brings him back again to Elsinore at a most critical moment. The story now follows the hapless fate of Ophelia, and we witness the first of a long series of tragic events which spring from the violent death of Polonius. * See Gervinus' admirable criticism on that soliloquy (at end of Act II.), in which he enlarges on this point (vol. ii., page 136, Bunnett's Authorised Translation), though, as I have observed in Appendix E, the expression is not so out of place as, at first sight, it seems, PART IV. WE may take the interval, which elapses between the scene we are now considering (Act IV., Scene 5) and the one before it, as at least one month, and probably more. During this time the hurried and secret funeral of Polonius had taken place; Hamlet had sailed with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern for England; Ophelia, crushed by the terrible blows, coming at the same moment, of her father's sudden and mysterious death and her lover's equally sudden departure without a word of explanation, had, while yet her mind remained sufficiently clear, at once despatched a messenger to her brother to summon him from France; the people, meanwhile, from whom the tragic end of Polonius and the virtual banishment of Hamlet could not long be concealed, had begun to murmur strange suspicions and to lend a ready ear to vague and disquieting rumours; this uneasy and discontented frame of mind was aggravated by the madness of Ophelia, and fanned into open revolt by the arrival of Laertes, furious with rage, and crying loud for vengeance against those who were responsible for his father's violent death and hasty, disrespectful, interment. I have spoken of the first part of this scene elsewhere, so that it is only necessary to notice here-first, how the Queen seems to treat Horatio with more respect and confidence, because she has become aware with how much trust and love he was regarded by Hamlet; next, that her son's reproaches had effectually awakened her conscience, as is evident from the words that she utters to herself * (Aside.) To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt. *See Appendix D. |